Igor Levit’s response to tragedy, Ethan Iverson’s first piano sonata and a personal recording by Gidon Kremer are among the highlights.
‘Lieder Ohne Worte’
Igor Levit, piano (Sony)
Music doesn’t have the power to end wars. Peace, said Daniel Barenboim, whose West-Eastern Divan Orchestra brings together Israeli and Palestinian artists, “needs something else.”
But that doesn’t mean musicians are powerless. On this album, recorded and released with white-heat urgency following the latest conflict in Israel and Gaza, Igor Levit documents a personal reaction while using his platform as a star pianist to support two organizations against antisemitism that are based in Berlin, where he lives.
In the past, Levit has been accused of opportunistic political posturing, but his philanthropic projects have been virtually apolitical — and too substantial to dismiss. Early in the pandemic, he spun his “house concert” livestreams into a marathon of Satie’s “Vexations” that raised money for artist relief. And this album’s proceeds will go directly to the Berlin organizations.
Levit wanted to record selections from Mendelssohn’s “Lieder Ohne Worte,” or “Songs Without Words,” because, he has said, “there is a certain melancholy about them which really helped me a bit.” That doleful mood pervades these interpretations: a sadly beautiful tone; an emotional climax that evaporates rather than reaching a resolution; a heartbreakingly simple plunk of high keys.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
